My Patterns

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

My Friendship Heart Quilt {Finished}

And just in time for Valentine's Day!

I fell in love with this quilt pattern several months ago when a customer brought her heart quilt top in to the fabric store I work at. Shortly after, she delivered the pattern to me and I've had lots of fun with it ever since. This is the second quilt I've made using this pattern (you may remember the first one, titled Blocks For Bella).

I really wanted to make another one after working on Bella's quilt. So, I talked 9 members of a little quilt group I'm in to join me in a friendship heart quilt block exchange!

We each made one big and two small heart blocks to give to each participating quilter. The rules were that you had to embellish at least one of those hearts and stick to the color scheme. Everyone had free reign after that. It should be fun to see how everyone ended up putting theirs together. I'll get a picture at our next meeting :)

When it came to my borders, I originally planned on just doing a simple, non-pieced border. But then I started thinking that I always do simple, non-pieced borders. So I decided I would go the extra mile this time and add a postage stamp border for which I had no instructions. I had to figure out
what size my inner border needed to be to make my outer border work out. It was kind of like working backwards so I was really excited when my math actually worked out!

For the inner border I used this white with gold polka dot fabric I had purchased for my stash a couple months earlier. I thought it was very festive for Valentine's Day and it makes me happy. The info on the selvedge reads: Spot On design #12873 Studio RK for Robert Kaufman.

I originally planned on using Minky for my back but when I came across this gorgeous fabric by Tanya Whelan for Free Spirit - I couldn't resist. It also makes me VERY happy :)

Right around Christmas-time, I won some fun prizes on Instagram, including a set of permanent fabric markers. I decided to try them out on a label for this quilt (I didn't feel like embroidering anything after my postage stamp border. And no, I don't always put labels on my quilts...but I do try.)

Jen Ostler quilted this for me with loops, hearts and a little bit of outlining.

I've already had a few people asking for the pattern information so here's what I know. The pattern was adapted from a pattern called Listen to Your Heart by Lizzie B Cre8tive. I added on 2 3/4" inner border strips and then used 4 1/2" pink gingham squares for the postage stamp border. The white squares on the postage stamp border were 1 1/2" each. Then I added another 1 1/2" white border all the way around. The finished size is 61" x 77".

I think of you often, you always strike me as someone who really pours her heart into her amazing designs…this one Amber will stick with me like your chicken one, christmas one…YOU are soooo good with colour…love that border….yes you certainly have HEART..thank you for sharing so much of it with us...

So here's how we worked this as a block exchange. We broke the quilt down into 12 blocks - each one consisting of 1 big and 2 small hearts each. Note: we only had 10 people participate so we each had to make two extra sets on our own. So everyone made 10 blocks/sets of hearts and then we traded. We decided to not sew the three blocks together prior to trading so that people could lay them out on their own, according to their liking (it's also nice just in case there are any repeats of fabrics and to make sure you can get a nice balance in color). We asked that everyone embellish at least one heart in each set. Our color scheme was whites and creams for the backgrounds and reds and pinks for the hearts. As you can see there were a few deviations from the color scheme (such as a few light pink backgrounds and some white hearts) but I think it just added extra interest!

That border is really appropriate for this quilt, bringing to mind love letters. It's also exactly what I've been trying to puzzle out for quilt for myself! I've been trying to do the same thing with HSTs, then paper-piecing, but nothing came out half as nice as this.It's funny - you think you have original ideas, and you see people saying that no quilting ideas are ever original because the craft has been around so long, but you can't find this particular idea... Then lo and behold, it pops up twice in quick succession! First in the blog hop for Lori Holt's book Quilty Fun, and now here!I must see if a more thorough google search brings up any information - it keeps getting confused with postage stamp quilts.

Yes, Lori's Row Along Quilt inspired my border. I'm a big fan of hers. Mine has different measurements I believe and my corners are different than hers but I definitely got the idea from her quilt. I love it. I've seen the idea before too - just reversed - so they look like tags. Like what I did on the border of my snowball quilt (just reversed):

http://alittlebitbiased.blogspot.com/2011/06/snowballs.html

Anyways, similar idea :) Just make half snowballs. No need for paper piecing!

Half snowballs, of course! Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me, also. I shall take this idea and put it somewhere very important so that I remember it!It really does look lovely, and so does the snowballs quilt you linked to! I find so much inspiration from your blog, so thank you!

I love your site! And I love the heart quilt. I'm sure it was such a comfort to your little friend. Our daughter is a pediatric resident in Charlotte and she has the most heartbreaking stories. I don't know how parents deal with their children being sick. So your quilt was wonderful!

Do you know where I can locate a pattern? I've googled and looked all over and cannot find it. I'm thinking it would be a great group project for my small group.

Yes, I did raw edge applique on my tag. And yes, I just used a fabric permanent marker to write my tag. Usually I embroider my tags but I just wanted to get it done and off to the quilter (and try out my new fabric pens!)

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